Man tied to pole in Ukraine street

A FACEBOOK Live video broadcast on July 20 showed a man tied to a pole in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, with a makeshift sign attached to him that read "vatnik," which is a slur word used for pro-Russian supporters in the country.

In the video, the person filming the scene spoke with passers-by and police officers who arrived at the scene, before the man was eventually cut free from the pole. Police arrived around eight minutes into the broadcast, but did not free the man until around twenty minutes later and then placed him into the back of a squad car.

The man was tied to the street pole by residents after he damaged a war memorial in a Ukrainian town.

Man tied up for wrecking war memorial.

Angry citizens tied up the man.

Ukrainian media reported that the man was tied up in retaliation for damaging a war memorial in the city in recent days.

A video posted by the same person, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, on July 15, showed the same man thrown to the ground.

The accompanying caption on the Facebook post claimed the man damaged a memorial to the "Heavenly Hundred" which honours those killed during the Euromaidan protests of 2013-14.

The unloader of both videos, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, has a history of posting racist and inflammatory content on his Facebook page, including a post criticising Roma people.

He also appeared in a photo dressed in combat gear and raising his right arm in the form of a neo-Nazi salute.

When asked by Storyful why the man was tied up, Tarnavskyi claimed the man had been inappropriate with children. Neither of the claims have been confirmed.

After the man was freed, Tarnavskyi gave his phone to someone to hold while he spoke to media about the incident.